A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat regions covered with wind-swept sand or dunes, with little or no vegetation, are called ergs or sand seas. Dunes occur in different shapes and sizes, but most kinds of dunes are longer on the stoss (upflow) side, where the sand is pushed up the dune, and have a shorter slip face in the lee side. The valley or trough between dunes is called a dune slack.
Holkham National Nature Reserve is England's largest national nature reserve (NNR). It is on the Norfolk coast between Burnham Overy Staithe and Blakeney, and is managed by Natural England with the cooperation of the Holkham Estate. Its 3,900 hectares comprise a wide range of habitats, including grazing marsh, woodland, salt marsh, sand dunes and foreshore. The reserve is part of the North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest, and the larger area is additionally protected through Natura 2000, Special Protection Area (SPA) and Ramsar listings, and is part of both an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and a World Biosphere Reserve. Holkham NNR is important for its wintering wildfowl, especially pink-footed geese, Eurasian wigeon and brant geese, but it also has breeding waders, and attracts many migrating birds in autumn. Many scarce invertebrates and plants can be found in the dunes, and the reserve is one of the only two sites in the UK to have an antlion colony.
Chobham Common is a 655.7-hectare (1,620-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of Chobham in Surrey. It is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I and a national nature reserve. It is part of the Thames Basin Heaths Special Protection Area and the Thursley, Ash, Pirbright and Chobham Special Area of Conservation. It contains three scheduled monuments. Most of the site is managed by the Surrey Wildlife Trust as the Chobham Common nature reserve, but the SSSI also includes a small private reserve managed by the Trust, Gracious Pond.
Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is an American national park that conserves an area of large sand dunes on the eastern edge of the San Luis Valley, and an adjacent national preserve in the Sangre de Cristo Range, in south-central Colorado, United States. The park was originally designated Great Sand Dunes National Monument on March 17, 1932, by President Herbert Hoover. The original boundaries protected an area of 35,528 acres. A boundary change and redesignation as a national park and preserve was authorized on November 22, 2000, and then established on September 24, 2004. The park encompasses 107,342 acres while the preserve protects an additional 41,686 acres for a total of 149,028 acres. The recreational visitor total was 527,546 in 2019.
The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, featuring in the Domesday Book.
Soomaa National Park is a national park in south-western Estonia. Soomaa protects 390 km2, the park was created in 1993. Soomaa has been an Important Bird Area since 1989, a Ramsar site of protected wetlands since 1997, and a Natura 2000 area since 2004.
The fauna of Europe is all the animals living in Europe and its surrounding seas and islands. Europe is the western part of the Palearctic realm. Lying within the temperate region, the wildlife is not as rich as in the hottest regions, but is nevertheless diverse due to the variety of habitats and the faunal richness of Eurasia as a whole.
Murlough Nature Reserve is a dune heathland on the coast of County Down in Northern Ireland, near Newcastle. It is on a peninsula between Dundrum Bay and Murlough Bay and has views of Slieve Donard, the highest peak in the Mourne Mountains. Its 6,000-year-old sand dune system has been managed by the National Trust since 1967, when it became Ireland's first nature reserve. It is also home to Murlough Beach.
Hoge Kempen National Park is the first National Park in Flanders, Belgium. It is located in the Campine in the East of the Province of Limburg, between Genk and the river Meuse Valley. It includes the elevated ground that defines the watershed between that river and the low ground of the drainage basin of the river Demer that covers most of Belgian Limburg.
Fauna of Wales includes marine and land animals, birds and reptiles that are resident, visitors or have been introduced to Wales.
Highgate Common is a Staffordshire Wildlife Trust reserve containing a mix of heathland and woodland. It is about 116 hectares or 286 acres in size. The common is a popular leisure destination and a Site of Special Scientific Interest, located in Southern Staffordshire, England.
Sound Heath, also known as Sound Common, is an area of common land in Sound, near Nantwich in Cheshire, England, which includes heathland, grassland, scrub, woodland and wetland habitats. The majority of the area is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Local Nature Reserve.
The North Norfolk Coast Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) is an area of European importance for wildlife in Norfolk, England. It comprises 7,700 ha (19,027 acres) of the county's north coast from just west of Holme-next-the-Sea to Kelling, and is additionally protected through Natura 2000, Special Protection Area (SPA) listings; it is also part of the Norfolk Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The North Norfolk Coast is also designated as a wetland of international importance on the Ramsar list and most of it is a Biosphere Reserve.
The Drents-Friese Wold National Park is a national park in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Drenthe, covering more than 61 km2 (24 sq mi), founded in 2000. It consists of forests, heath lands and drift-sands.
Utrechtse Heuvelrug National Park is a national park in the Dutch province of Utrecht. It covers the southern part of the Utrecht Hill Ridge. When it was founded in 2003 the park covered 6,000 ha of heathlands, shifting sands, forests, grass lands and floodplains. In 2013 the park was extended to 10,000 ha, adding the area north of highway A12 when the ecoduct Mollebos was realized. The most striking landscape feature is the glacial ridge after which the park is named.
Schiermonnikoog National Park is a national park in the Dutch province of Friesland. It was founded in 1989. It covers about 72 km2 (28 sq mi), the majority of the island Schiermonnikoog.
East of the village of Nijnsel and the hamlet of Vressel, both in Meierijstad, North Brabant, Netherlands, is the location of the Vresselse bossen or Vresselsche Bosch . The Vresselse Bossen is a forest area of 241 ha. It is owned and managed by the National Forest Service (Staatsbosbeheer). The forest is named after the nearby hamlet of Vressel.
The İğneada Floodplain Forests National Park, established on November 13, 2007, is a national park located within Kırklareli Province in Marmara Region at East Thrace, the European part of Turkey.
The Cresmina Dune extends over 66 hectares and is a part of the Guincho-Oitavos dune system, located on the edge of the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park near Cascais in Portugal. This dune system is considered fairly unique because, as a result of the prevailing northwest winds, the sand from the Guincho and Cresmina beaches eventually returns to the sea 5 km further to the south near Guia, after migrating over the flat, rocky and largely uninhabited area of Cabo Raso.
The Atlantic mixed forests is a terrestrial ecoregion in western Europe. It extends along the western edge of continental Europe, from southwestern France through northern France, Belgium, the Netherlands, northwestern Germany, and western Denmark. Most of the region's forests and dunes have been converted to fields, pastures, and forest plantations, and its once-extensive wetlands have mostly been drained and filled.
